Denver's "Best" High Schools

In the August 2007 issue of 5280, "Denver's Mile-High Magazine", the cover article targeted Denver's best high schools. I was intrigued, as I always am, at these ratings not because I want to see which schools are the "best", but to see what criteria they used to make the determination. I saw it coming from ten miles away: the criteria was heavily weighted to the college bound, forsaking all of the young entrepreneurs, interns, trade school candidates, apprentices and the like. As if college bound equals firm ground.

Let's be straight. A college education can do no harm. But generally we get results for what we produce, not for what we know. And I for one want to maximize the potential for all learners, not just the college bound!

Here are the seven criteria for the Denver ratings: Student-Teacher Ratio(not a bad one for starters, unless you have teachers who couldn't get a ripple on an EEG); Lowest Number of Disciplinary or Safety or Safety Problems Per Student; ACT Composite Score (college entrance test); SAT Critical Reading+ Math Score(again, sterile college entrance material); Percentage of Teachers With Advanced Degrees (some current research has shown this to be clearly irrevelant); Number of Advanced Placement Classes (courses where students can earn college credit if they pass an exit test); and Dropout Rates.

In addition, some of the comments from the top seven schools read like this: "4.2 million dollars in (college) scholarships...", "85% of students attend four year colleges", "100% of students attend four year colleges", "...academic rigor...", "...largest number of AP offerings...highest AP scores in the region.", "94.6% of graduates attend four year colleges...", and so on.

It's fascinating, because I've read that landing a job is overwhelmingly (up to 85%) a function of one's personality, attitude, desire, and flexibility.

So what do we learn from this? If you want to be a chef and make a six figure income in your own mobile business and perhaps consulting or coaching on the side, don't worry about being stuck in one of the "loser" schools. In fact, in a related article about a Denver area school that won't be on the (elite) list, one students says "People don't know anything about (us)...They don't know how to overcome adversity...The teachers and staff at my school are wonderful...they teach us more than what we need to know...they teach us life lessons to help us survive."

Enlightening, huh? I'm with that kid!